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Jessamine’s eyes narrowed on the erox. “Why don’tyoutry to reason with it? Maybe if you say ‘please,’ it’ll leave us alone.”

Arabella still held on to some of the shadows from the zaol’s blast of power, allowing the shadows to fill her and strengthen her. Without it, she feared she’d collapse into a heap on the ground.

She allowed a slip of shadows to wrap around her sword, which she’d scooped up from where she’d dropped it on the ground. Leaving the second sword in its sheath, she turned to Hadeon. “Let’s end this now and get back to finding the shadow fae. My mate needs me.” Over her shoulder, she said, “Hadeon, your blade turns whatever it touches into ash. Breckett, shield Hadeon with your magic so he can?—”

“No,” Hadeon interrupted. “That won’t be necessary.”

Her eyes narrowed. “But he could?—”

“I can get close to the zaol without the help of the erox,” Hadeon said.

After the greater demon bellowed again, she said, “Fine. Breckett, shield Jessamine. Get as close as you dare. Jessamine, use your enchantress magic. Its weakness might be light and life.”

Breckett nodded, not making an objection for once.

The greater demon drew closer. There wasn’t time for more of a plan than that.

“Prince, kill it quickly, would you? I’ll absorb its shadows,” she said as she lowered herself into a crouch.

The choices before them had become simple. It was either fight the zaol now while they still had the strength or wait for it to kill them later. There was nowhere to run—not if they had another thirty or more miles across the desert before they reached the next oasis. They wouldn’t stand a chance. And therewas nowhere to lose the zaol in this small oasis, especially not when a quarter of the trees had been blasted in a single attack.

She watched the zaol take several lumbering steps forward, noting that its movements were slightly slower than before. Had that attack weakened it?

For Elias,she thought before launching herself forward.

The shadows around her legs released like coils, shooting her off the ground. As she flew through the air, she caught a flash of movement as Jessamine and Breckett disappeared and another as Hadeon launched into the air.

The zaol lashed out with one of its massive arms, and she slashed down with her blade. It clanged as though her blade was blunt. For a moment, she worried the sword would bounce off. But she clutched it tightly, willing the shadows around it to move more quickly. They responded instantly, and a moment later, the creature's arm sloughed off, falling to the ground and disappearing in a plume of shadow.

Roaring, the greater demon stumbled backward.

Then Hadeon was there, arcing down with his sword. The zaol managed to release a blast of shadow just before the prince’s sword met its chest. Already moving, she opened herself up and reached for the shadows as they blasted Hadeon back. She absorbed the worst of the attack, though smoke trailed up from the hairs along Hadeon’s arms.

Rather than releasing the shadows back into the ground, she raised her hand at the zaol, her palm forward.

And released.

The torrent spilled out from her, reminding her of dark waters as she blasted it back at the greater demon. She breathed a sigh of relief as the creature stumbled backward, roaring. Before it could retreat or make a counterattack, Jessamine appeared beneath it. She moved her arms in the motions Arabella knew all too well—summoning earthen magic to formbolts at the demon from beneath it. But rather than golden bolts appearing in the air at Jessamine’s shoulders, nothing happened.

Instead, Jessamine stumbled to a knee, retching on the ground.

Sensing her, the zaol turned down to her and was about to smash them with one of its arms.

“No,” Arabella screamed and lashed out with a band of shadow.

She wrapped it around both Breckett and Jessamine, looping it around their waists. With all her strength, shepulled.They soared through the air, narrowly missing the zaol’s strike.

Jessamine and Breckett crashed into the ground on either side of Arabella. She didn’t have the strength to soften their fall as she fell on her ass, gasping.

Breckett muttered something beside her as Jessamine retched again.

After a moment, Jessamine wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and said, “There’s no earthen magic here. The ground is full of death.”

There was no earthen magic in the Abyss? Arabella supposed that made sense, butfuck. That was going to be a problem. It left Jessamine with only her combat skills and Arabella with only her shadow magic.

There was a squelching sound, and Arabella looked up.

The zaol’s body tumbled to the ground like a severed tree before dissolving into a plume of ash. Sword in hand, Hadeon flew to the ground, his eyes fixed on where the greater demon had been.